Suzuka Super Formula: Nojiri scores second straight win

Fukuzumi had controlled the early stages of race after scoring his first career Super Formula pole on Saturday until his right-rear tyre let go on the run down to 130R on lap 9 of 30.

That promoted Nojiri into a lead he wouldn’t lose, barring a brief spell after making his mandatory pitstop on lap 13.

His closest rival thereafter was Ryo Hirakawa, who pitted in a lap later but filtered back on to the track behind the Nojiri and was powerless to seriously challenge the leader after that.

A safety car period followed as Yuji Kunimoto suffered a puncture and crashed heavily at 130R, but Nojiri controlled the restart and kept Impul driver Hirakawa at bay for the remaining laps to score his fifth career victory and give himself a perfect record of wins in 2021.

It marks the first time a driver has won consecutive Super Formula races since Naoki Yamamoto won the opening two rounds of the 2018 campaign.

Behind Hirakawa, Fukuzumi’s Dandelion teammate Ukyo Sasahara completed the podium in third place, followed by Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul) and Hiroki Otsu in the second Mugen car.

TOM’S pair Ritomo Miyata and Giuliano Alesi cycled into the top two positions as the last drivers to complete their mandatory stop, both coming in immediately after Kunimoto’s crash and just after the safety car had been deployed.

Miyata finished sixth after gaining one position at the expense of Inging’s Sho Tsuboi, who was able to hold off an attack from Yamamoto (Nakajima Racing) in the closing laps.

Yamamoto only gained one place from his grid slot of 10th on the opening lap as his teammate Toshiki Oyu made a poor start from third and slipped to 14th.

The reigning champion hung on to eighth after defending from a charging Alesi, who was able to pass both Kenta Yamashita and a recovering Oyu following his stop on his way to ninth.

Oyu picked up the final point in 10th place as Kondo Racing’s Yamashita slipped behind the second Inging car of Sena Sakaguchi to 12th.

Nobuharu Matsushita was 13th on his return to Super Formula with the one-car B-Max Racing squad, while Tatiana Calderon (Drago Corse) had an uneventful race at the rear of the field, finally ending up 17th.

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Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	16	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen	30
2	20	Ryo Hirakawa	Team Impul	30	1.453
3	6	Ukyo Sasahara	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	30	4.187
4	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul	30	9.916
5	15	Hiroki Otsu	Red Bull MUGEN Team Goh	30	10.523
6	37	Ritomo Miyata	Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S	30	11.856
7	38	Sho Tsuboi	P.MU/CERUMO･INGING	30	14.778
8	1	Naoki Yamamoto	TCS Nakajima Racing	30	14.781
9	36	Giuliano Alesi	Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S	30	15.104
10	64	Toshiki Oyu	TCS Nakajima Racing	30	16.302
11	39	Sena Sakaguchi	P.MU/CERUMO･INGING	30	19.108
12	3	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing	30	21.443
13	51	Nobuharu Matsushita	B-Max Racing Team	30	22.184
14	4	Yuichi Nakayama	Kondo Racing	30	22.653
15	14	Kazuya Oshima	NTT Communications ROOKIE	30	24.380
16	7	Kazuto Kotaka	KCMG	30	25.916
17	12	Tatiana Calderon	ThreeBond Drago CORSE	30	29.364
18	18	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG	14	16 Laps
19	5	Nirei Fukuzumi	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	9	21 Laps
View full results